MacEachren’s own research roots are in cartography and spatial cognition. His current research interests cover a wide spectrum of GIScience topics. These include: geovisual analytics, geovisualization and exploratory spatial data analysis, geosemantics and geographical information retrieval. Applications domains to which his research connects include public health, crisis management, and environmental science.

Interests

Building from a background in cartography and spatial cognition, my work during the 1990s focused on a range of issues associated with geographic representation and geovisualization. Within these domains, a long standing interest was the interaction between formalized visual and digital representations inherent in maps and geographic information systems and human mental representation of space and space-time. In How Maps Work: Representation, Visualization and Design I develop a cognitive-semiotic theoretical perspective from which to address these and related issues. Much of my work in this domain deals with dynamic forms of representation. These include exploratory spatial data analysis tools and map animation for understanding geographic processes. Much of this research has been linked to applications of mapping, geovisualization and ESDA in public health.

Another thread in my research has been integration of geographic visualization with other knowledge construction methods, natural interfaces to GIS, geo-virtual environments, and geocollaboration (design and use of technologies to enable groups to work productively with geospatial information). Much of this research has been grounded in applications within environmental science and crisis management. Some of this research has emphasized designing analytical tools and systems, some has focused on cognitive systems engineering approaches to understanding user needs and work practices and adapting tools to meet those needs, and some has focused on the underlying cognitive and perceptual issues that are critical to building visual displays and interfaces what work.

Over the past several years, a primary focus in my research has been on basic and applied research in visual analytics, defined as the science of analytical reasoning facilitated by interactive visual interfaces. This work draws upon and extends my past work but puts a particular focus on understanding reasoning with complex information and related processes of information foraging and sensemaking with heterogeneous information. The latter topic has brought my interests full circle back to issues of spatial cognition, with a focus on understanding how humans conceptualize space, place, and movement linguistically and on visual-computational interfaces for leveraging spatial information contained in text documents. For a couple of examples of outcomes from research that links some of the work about, see the GeoVISTA Center YouTube site (in particular, the Demonstration of SensePlace and Health GeoJunction): www.youtube.com/user/GeoVISTACenter.

An important research and graduate training initiative, the Big Data Social Science IGERT (for which I am a CoPI), includes a focus on (geo)visual analytics specifically directed to joint advances in social and analytical sciences; for details see: http://bdss.psu.edu/

Du P, Lemkin A, Kluhsman B, MacEachren A, Meyers C, Zurlo J, and Lengerich E 2010 The roles of social domains, screening, and HPV infection in spatial clusters of US cervical cancer mortality: Not all the clusters are the same. Cancer Causes and Control DOI 10.1007/s10552-10010-19596-10554

Du, P., Lemkin, A., Kluhsman, B., MacEachren, A., Meyers, C., Zurlo, J. and Lengerich, E. 2010: The roles of social domains, screening, and HPV infection in spatial clusters of US cervical cancer mortality: Not all the clusters are the same. Cancer Causes and Control 21, 1669-1683.